Funds to be awarded to another Resilient SRQ initiative
In early January, the Sarasota County Commission allocated federal grant money to four affordable housing projects as part of the county’s response to unmet needs resulting from the 2024 hurricane season.
With limited money remaining in the Resilient SRQ Program “pot” for such initiatives after the majority of the board members agreed on those four projects, Commissioner Mark Smith won agreement from his colleagues to provide the remaining $3,075,248 to a fifth applicant, McDowell Housing Partners, for a $15-million proposal called Ekos Cocoanut.
McDowell — which has offices in Miami and Dallas, its LinkedIn account says — had submitted an application to county staff that sought $15 million for construction of 158 dwelling units at 1404 Industrial Court in Sarasota. Those units would be priced as affordable for more than 40 years to households making up to 80% of the Median Area Income (AMI) for the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area, the application said.
(The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announces the AMI levels on an annual basis for each Metropolitan Statistical Area.)
The breakdown of the dwelling unit types was thus, the document continued: 102 one-bedroom units; 48 two-bedroom units; and eight three-bedroom units. The anticipated completion date was November 2028. The total project budget, the application showed, was $62,927,112.
Commissioner Smith explained during the Jan. 13 discussion, that application was his top priority, as the proposal would result in the closing of a company called U.S. Recycling, whose removal from the city of Sarasota residents have been pleading for for years.
During the Open to the Public comment period at the start of the Jan. 13 commission meeting, Ron Kashden, second vice president of the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations of Sarasota (CCNA), pointed out that the “rogue operator [of U.S. Recycling] not only creates a public health nuisance, but it also siphons off significant county resources to monitor and enforce [the applicable regulations].”
For example, he said, “The inspection standard for a similar facility is once in every five years. However, Sarasota County has inspected and taken action on U.S. Recycling over 25 times in just three years.”
CCNA represents 33 neighborhoods with more than 25,000 households, Kashden noted.
City residents also have stressed their belief that toxic pollutants associated with U.S. Recycling’s operation have led to numerous cancer diagnoses in people who live in the city.
The nonprofit Suncoast Waterkeeper, which is based in Sarasota, filed a federal complaint against U.S. Recycling in December 2025, contending that the company “discharges polluted storm water from a scrap and concrete recycling and concrete manufacturing facility located in Sarasota, Florida. The facility is operating in violation of the Clean Water Act and the State of Florida’s Multi-Sector Generic Permit for Storm Water Discharge Associated with Industrial Activity.”
“This is a serious, serious health condition,” Smith stressed to his board colleagues on Jan. 13.
When Chair Ron Cutsinger whether the commission’s award of partial funding to the McDowell Housing initiative would lead to U.S. Recycling’s closure, Steve Hyatt, manager of the Resilient SRQ Program, explained that the developer had provided a letter of intent to U.S. Recycling to purchase its property for slightly more than $5 million, utilizing part of the federal funding the developer was seeking from the county.
Ultimately, the commissioners did vote to give the $3,075,248 to McDowell Housing Partners, with the proviso that if the company were unable to use the funding to buy the U.S. Recycling site, the money would be returned to the county for reallocation to another initiative that met HUD’s guidelines for dispersal of the nearly $210.1 million it awarded the county in January 2025.
Commissioner Teresa Mast’s motion called for staff to report back to the board members as soon as possible on the status of the county award to McDowell.
During the commission’s regular meeting on March 3, after Chris Shear, president of the company, came to the podium in the Commission Chambers of the Robert L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, Commissioner Smith told him, “I heard … that U.S. Recycling had pulled their sales agreement from you.”
McDowell representatives could not “come to terms with [U.S. Recycling] on site control,” Shear responded.
Shear told the board members, “I want to be very clear: We have no desire to move forward with the project at this point.”
Following that update, Commissioner Joe Neunder made a motion to reallocate the HUD funds that would have gone to McDowell, and Commissioner Tom Knight seconded it. The motion passed 5-0.
Staff is expected to schedule that discussion on an upcoming meeting agenda.
An effort in progress for a while
On Jan. 30, as shown in documents provided to the board in its agenda packet for the March 3 meeting, Eduardo Teran, director of development for McDowell, had responded to an email inquiry from a county staff member with the Resilient SRQ Program regarding the commission’s Jan. 13 vote.
County staff a letter from Shear, who wrote, “The Purchase and Sale Agreement is in near-final form and currently undergoing final negotiations. We will provide the fully executed agreement once both parties have completed execution. The development team met with the City of Sarasota last week. The meeting included commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, city manager, city attorney, and multiple planning and community development staff members. The City expressed very strong support for the acquisition and (revised) development plan. They are committed to finding the remaining funds needed for land acquisition, however, they require additional time to identify and assemble the specific funding sources. We respectfully request a conditional award of [HUD funds] granting 6 months for the City and/or applicant to provide a firm commitment letter fully identifying and committing the sources necessary to bridge the land acquisition gap. Awarding the [HUD funds] now allows the development team to commence the lengthy [and required HUD environmental review of the plans], thereby expeditiously securing an ‘Authority to Use Grant Funds approval (AUGF)’ and allowing us to close as quickly as possible to cease US Recycling’s operation.”
Shear further noted that the plans had been modified to create 120 dwelling units, given the need to secure other funding from the Florida Housing Finance Corp.
Shear concluded the letter, “We applaud and appreciate Resilient SRQ’s partnership and the County’s commitment to replacing the serious pollution and health risk stemming from the US Recycling operation with high-quality affordable housing.”
Shear included with his response a letter to Hyatt of Resilient SRQ from Deputy Sarasota City Manager Patrick Robinson:
